Just from looking at the picture of the scene, I imagine. Sad thing to happen, though, indeed...

Pentagon officials didn't immediately know the condition of the 3 on board..........really? Look at the impact crater. R.I.P

If you are using "Internet Explorer", you can go to the "Tool Bar" at the top and select "View" then Select "Zoom" and you can zoom in and see that all that's there is a hole in the ground and little pieces of what must be left of the Jet. No one could have survived that impact. ;-( ,,,,, RIP guys.....

The reason they don't know of the immediate deaths is they could have ejected 20 miles from there. It looks almost like they went straight in as the wreckage is not spread of a large area.

If the report is no survivors then maybe so, but the impact point tells us nothing regarding whether or not they got out before it went in. With that much dispersal, unless they find all the crew in that crater, they can't say either way without a thorough search of the surrounding area over several square miles.

The farmer saying 'no sign of ejection' doesn't cut it.

As an aside- who is still using Internet Explorer? If you still are you don't know what you are missing.

Globally military aircraft crash in considerable numbers every month. The magazine "Combat Aircraft" devotes an entire page in every issue listing military craft crashes numbering at least 20. Granted most happen in what can be best described as the "Third World" and a lot in Russia and former Soviet bloc countries. In last six months an F-22A out of Hickham Hawaii was lost, an F-16 over the Adriatic quite a few in Afghanistan, some out of Nellis AFB Nevada. Not minimizing this particular one but pointing out that the military lose many more aircraft than the civilian one's.

Sorry...my bad. Meant Tyndall AFB Florida not Hickham, HI. Pilot survived thankfully but $420,000,000.00 aircraft destroyed.

Shut up please, Realist. It's not about you, or your political views. There's a time and place for those views, but this is not it. These families will be going through a lot of grief. I'm stationed in Whidbey island. You just don't have a clue. Stop trolling on every page with that comment.

biker..... What am I missing??????

Realist, have some respect. People are dead, a mother lost her son, and you're on here babbling about your gun rights? If you are the constitutionalist you claim to be, try showing respect to the ones that serve to protect it.

Realist, Obama is not taking away your constitutional rights. Nor are you paying a 50% tax. For being such a "realist" you sure do exaggerate alot....

An ink spot is a typical term for a splotch, bloch, or get this "an ink spot". In other words take a drop of ink an drop it on the floor. Hopefully you get the idea when someone says it looked like an ink spot down there, as the guy did. It really means there is nothing left but just a smear of charred debris in an impact area.

@schoolyard

Pentagon "Officials" won't comment until someone from the NTSB has actually confirmed there are no survivors. They do in most cases know the situation on the ground within about 30 minutes by numerous sources but that doeasn't mean they will comment.

#1 source being Air Traffic Control or some VOR in the area (the transponder from the aircraft was most likely destroyed). They obviously had a flight plan from Whidbey NAS and undoubtedly they were in contact with them or another aircraft from the squadron.

The guys from NAS Whidbey when flying their training missions across the state (A6 Intruders/EA6B Prowlers/F-18 Hornets and other aircraft) fly a fairly typical mission/flight path. I have been "pinged" or targeted by Prowlers a few times while driving on the flats between Hermiston Oregon and Prosser Washington. When you're the only vehicle for miles and a Prowler flies over your vehicle at about 500 feet you know darn well they are practicing lighting you up and/or sneaking under somebodies radar. They could even be in a cat and mouse scenario with another bird from their squadron.

I've been canoeing on Lake Kachess when F-18's have flown over at rivet counting altitudes. Such a rush.

Sad loss.

RIP brave aviators. And thanks to everyone who has served our country.

May their souls find peace.

bri_877 - For one thing, performance. Internet Explorer is the slowest loading browser by a mile. Both Chrome and Firefox blow it into the weeds. On top of that there are several convenience features that the others have that IE does not. MS has tried to keep up and has added a few of the other browser's features, but it's still way slower and missing several important features.

DevilsAdvocate, you know it! They are the eagles on America's fist.

My dad was a Navy fighter pilot in Korea, flew off carrier decks. He was killed in a crash after the war. Hit a mountain. He died happy, never knew what hit him. I hope those guys bailed out in the sage brush some place.

When will this douchebaggery from the likes of you two ever stop?

Apparently the year 2,085,868

Mymomdidnotraiseafool .......Nope just an idiot

No need to ban all airplanes... just those that are able to gain altitude of more than 18 inches. It may not be the answer, but we need to do SOMEthing... The Obama rationale really is hilarious!

Mymomdidnotraiseafool, I'm guessing that this banter will stop just as soon as Owebama stops spinning us with his useless and almost comical rhetoric (he's a modern day character from the movie "Thank You For Smoking") at an attempt to justify his political agendas.

This comment caused me pain.

As a service to the rest of us, please first type your thoughts into Microsoft Word or comparable word processing program and let the spell check do it's job. Afterwards, you can copy/paste your thought into the comment box and share said thought with the rest of the world.

If even spell check doesn't know what you're saying, then please go back to school.

Wow dude, go back to school and I mean now.

I really think he is screwing with people...=) Just a thought though...=)

EA-6B

Or they were too close to the ground to eject when they realized they were in big trouble.

I live in Spokane and we see these planes flying maneuvers all the time. They are quite often very close to the ground. Looks like they just didn't have time.

My sympathies to their families.

I have family on Whidbey Island and they've told us that the prowlers are constantly flying way to close to the ground. I know the rural areas are getting pretty annoyed with it. I feel bad for there families, I hope this tightens the standards for everyone else though. Whidbey is much more densely populated than rural eastern Washington, this could have been worse over there.

those are old planes,they were back in 80s when I was in so could have been about anything that happened.I do hope they find something of the crews.appears it went in fast.

I have gotten haircuts from Prowlers while hiking near Vantage WA and also White Pass WA. These guys do like to fly fast and close to the ground. RIP Aircrew.

If none of the three tried to punch out, it might suggest a problem with the O2 system, or a sudden total loss of control...

The EA-6B will begin retirement in the 2010 timeframe, after a career that
exceeded 40 years of deployments in support of USN, USMC, and USAF strike
forces. As of early 2000, Defense Department planning for replacing the EA-6B
Prowler include a scheme under which the Navy would buy an F/A-18G "Growler" --
an F/A-18E/F modified for escort and close-in jamming. The Air Force would
provide standoff jamming with modified EB-52s or EB-1s, and close-in jamming
with unmanned air vehicles such as the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk or General
Atomics

talk about old, our b-52's are still kicking..

EA-6A's date back to Viet Nam. EA-6B's don't. I flew both. And Prowlers never have a two man crew. There has to be a third in the back even for a non-mission flight, such as a post maintenance check flight, for circuit break integrity watch. (old joke). This wasn't a PMCF however, as it was on the eastern side of the Cascades. The same year I got my wings the Prowler community lost NINE aircraft...1982, and Dan Rather called them the Navy's "Jinxed Jet". Rare that there were no ejections though....and the Martin Baker ejection seat is highly reliable.

No such thing as an "old" plane. Virtually every piece of equipment is new.

"WorldOfMorons

No such thing as an "old" plane. Virtually every piece of equipment is new."

King of your world, huh?

Question: As you are familiar with the airframe, is there something common that could disable all crew? I don't know aircraft and other than a catastrophic midair explosion immediately killing all, I have no clue as to what might be the cause.

Hi, from the only corpsman attached to VR-22. Still kickin!

Jim Burrill--I'd be likely to agree with the poster above who said it might have been a malfunctin of the O2 systems, kind of like the plane that killed golfer Payne Stewart some years ago.

Tragic.

Condolences to the Families and Relatives.

Thanks Jim Burrill, andrea-4152795 et al for your Facts (Definition Fact - Experience or Observations), unlike the Uneducated Non Factual (No Experience) posts above.

Having seen many Aircraft Crashes, especially those that I survived. If you copy the photo of the article and enlarge it (till you can see the people above the crash site, using the people for scale of 6 feet tall).

Seems that the Pilot or Copilot attempted to land (left of photo to right) wheels up, too steep, plowed into the field, went nose down and for some reason the aircraft exploded creating a crater spraying debris to the right of the photo. Of course aluminum burns. Or an uncontrolled crash due to the short plow mark going from left to right. The other possiblility if they were going from right to left would be an uncontrolled crash with the impact being 45 degrees or greater, and some of the heavier parts creating the plow mark, but that would not explain the burn mark pattern and debris field to the right of photo.

What would cause something like this, did they convert or change anything, to something similar to the F-22 (Pilot blackouts). Are the ejection seats like the zero altitude Russian Fighter jet type. Does the Pilot or Copilot eject everyone or do they eject independently (andrea-4152795 post#10).

Aw jeez.

Sadly, one possibility was "flat-hatting" or performing unauthorized aerobatics. Wouldn't be the first time a bird in a traning command - (like VAQ129) had a crew bored with a pilot trainer or area nav flight, and they had a " Hey guys, hold on tight!" moment and screwed the pooch, as we used to say. Grandpa Pettybone was in the bad position to have to comment on that way too often. (Inside joke only the NavAir vets will get)

The other could be an 02 failure. Pretty rare to happen but the O2 bottle could have been contaiminated. Much more likely the regulator packed up and the crew just passed out and flew into the ground. But my A-6 experiance was as an AT in W/C 210 Avionics Shop. Any PRs able to comment?

EA-6Bs had four ejection seats for the Pilot and three ECMOs. Stateside, they usually didn't fly a crewman in Seat 4, so the seat was kept pinned. Another post got it right and said that the rear seats went before the Pilot. There was a command Eject control for the pilot, that would start popping the seats regardless if the crew took any action. I ***Think*** the ECMOs could punch out independently by pulling the face curtain or the handle between your legs. The chance that the bird took off with out a seat pin count is astronomical. The odds that that happened AND the plane picked that day to crash is even more problematic.

Jim Burrill - Pretty rare to happen but the O2 bottle could have been contaiminated.

So O2 bottle(s) and not a chemical catalyst and compressor system like on a F-22. Are they shared O2 bottle(s) or separate. So is it like someone filing the O2 bottle(s) could have had CO2 going in also, like filling scuba tanks too close to the compressor exhaust.

It think, andrea-4152795 post#10, stoney-1938546 post#10.1 and Islander 29 post#10.2 answered my questions about the Ejection Seats.

Thanks Jim Burrill, andrea-4152795, stoney-1938546, and Islander 29.

The guy(s) in back have to eject first. If they don't the rocket motors in the front seat(s) will cook them. The pilot(s) probably have a eject selector and can select 'single' which ejects the back-seater(s) while the pilot(s) remain to try to regain control of the aircraft.

The ejector seats on the F-4 Phantom II had nine rocket motors under the aircrew seats. I don't recall the number on the F-16 and I've been told the F-15 has ten rocket motors under each seat.

Ejection order is as follows ECMO3, ECMO2, ECMO1, Pilot.

P,1

2,3

Quite the range to hit an aircraft in WAshington state !

Please be careful when posting this kind of info. At the time of your post the families hadn't been notified yet. Nothing worse than finding out a family member's death online versus in person. Even not knowing the pilots names, but knowing it was people in our command, will have all the spouses scared. They still train on the prowlers because not every command has transitioned, and until that happens they still have to train prowler pilots to replace pilots that are leaving that squadron.

I've worked F-4 C's, D's, E's and G's (Wild Weasels). There were times we had to code Mode 4 with the right engine hot. Coding was done from inside the front wheel well and a screw driver was used to open the hinged panel. You do not want to drop the screw driver.

No one liked coding when the center line 20 mm cannon slung-even with all power to the aircraft off.

LOL...=)

I thought the KA-3 RAG squadron at Whidbey was RVAH123?, and that later changed to VA-128 when they went from A3s to A6s.

When I was there in 1967 the I remember vah123,2 8 and 10. Had a fine time on Det 59!!!! Anybody else remember calling the U.S.S. Forrestal the "Crispy Critter"? Caught fire (no drill!) thirty nine times while I was on board.

Sorry, you missed the turn off for the douchebag forum. It was about a quarter mile back. Please make a U-turn and go to where you'll be appreciated.

I think the conspiracy nuts are now fixated on the ghost of Richard Nixon blowing up the Pentagon on 9/11, even though John Ehrlichmann is dead now. Nixon always used him as the mule.

In all seriousness, the EA-6B is an obsolete aircraft which has experienced catastrophic all-engine failure before, one having crashed on a mountainside on the Olympic Peninsula about a decade ago. (I know one of the pilots who successfully ejected at about 450 knots, something not done at that speed, because it can kill you.)

From what I understood, the EA-6B Prowler is being replaced by the F/A-18F Growler, or super-hornet. It's a much more effective jet, and it's got a better safety record.

On this note, I'm concerned that the Navy won't release the results to the public, but if it's a systemic problem with the old Prowler, they should all be grounded in favor of the more advanced Growler*.

* For reasons I won't get into here, an Australian jet would NEVER get the tag "Growler." Check urbandictionary for that one. lol.

Actually, you do see more real plane wreckage in this picture of a Navy Jet crashing in a field than you do in the field in Shanksville PA from 9/11 or at the Pentagon.

Sorry if you believe totally in what you're told all the time, some of us don't and question.